


See me for who I really am

by Multifandom_damnation



Category: Shazam! (2019)
Genre: Best Friends, Bullying, Canon Disabled Character, Dialogue Heavy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Foster Care, Gen, Good Sibling Billy Batson, Insults, Physical Disability, Protective Siblings, Shazamily (DCU)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25033084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: When Freddy has a terrible day at school and doesn't come home, Billy knows that it's up to him to bring his brother and best friend home, even if he knows that he isn't going to like the circumstances. But what else is family for if you can't love them at their worst?
Relationships: Billy Batson & Freddy Freeman
Comments: 8
Kudos: 69





	See me for who I really am

**Author's Note:**

> GOSH, I've been meaning to finish this for SO LONG and I finally got to it!! I just... I love the Shazam-fam so much!! And I totally understand the way that Freddy feels with his disability (I wish I knew what it was tho!) because I grew up with really bad scoliosis and I had a huge metal rod surgically fixed to my spine in 2015, and my curve was so bad that the nurses were shocked that I could walk and wasn't using a wheelchair. I think it was 83 degrees or something close to that. I had a hump on one side and walked with a limp, so a lot of people looked at me weird and tried to treat me like a baby and the teachers/hospital had a meeting so they could give me special accommodations that I never used because I was embarrassed. So yeah, I totally get where Freddy is coming from, and I never used crutches, but I was called a cripple and a lot of other things, so yeah, I get it. But anyway, enough about me, I hope you enjoy the fic!!

Billy was no stranger to doing homework.

He hated it- what fourteen-year-old didn’t?- but he knew better than to procrastinate before his end of term assignments coming up. He was so enraptured by finishing his algebra homework that he didn’t even notice the commotion going on outside the room he shared with Freddy.

The harried footsteps and panicked voices that echoed from the hallway fell on deaf ears as Billy focused on the nonsensical jumble of numbers and letters in front of him.

But then there was a sharp knock on his door and Billy was rudely wrenched from his thoughts. “Who is it?” he called as he put his pen down and closed his workbook, contemplating just flicking to the back of the book and using the answers in the furthermost page. They wouldn’t include the answers in the textbooks if they didn’t want you to use them, right?

To Billy’s surprise, it was Mary who walked in, eyes darting around the room and her hair a little bit of a mess. “Hi Billy,” she said, sounding a little defeated and distressed at the same time. “Have you, uh, have you seen Freddy?”

“Have I seen  _ Freddy _ ?” Billy frowned. “No, I thought he was with Darla.”

Mary bit her lip. “And Darla thought he was with  _ you _ .”

She looked so stressed and worried that Billy slowly stood up from his desk chair and made his way towards her, trying to seem nonchalant and probably failing miserably. “What’s the problem? It’s  _ Freddy _ . What are we worried about? There’s probably been a Superman sighting or something and he’s just gone to check it out.”

“That’s what we thought too,’ Mary said. “But then the school called an hour ago and said that he left class early because some new kids were giving him a hard time, and nobody has seen him since.”

Stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets, Billy nodded and sighed through his nose. He wasn’t worried, but he understood why the others would be. “Alright,” Billy said. “Let me pack some things and then I’ll go looking for him.”

He was secretly proud of the way he made Mary’s eyes light up, “You will?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Billy shrugged as he up-ended his school backpack in preparation for a supply run. “I know all his favourite places already, so it won’t be too hard to find him. But could you ask Eugene to help me with my algebra while I’m gone? I’ve still got heaps to do and it’s due tomorrow.”

Mary smiled as she wrapped her arms around him for a quick ‘thank you’ hug. “I’m sure he would love to.”

Pulling away, Billy made his way down the stairs to where Victor and Rosa were currently pacing back and forth across the living room. “But it’s not  _ like  _ Freddy to just… run away like this.” Victor was saying. “I thought he was happy here.”

Billy paused from where he was shovelling bags of chips and lollies into the open maw of his backpack to listen to the conversation without the sound of crinkling bags and wrappers, “Did we miss the signs? Was there something going on with him that we’ve been missing?” Rosa took away the hands currently tugging at her scalp and began chewing on her nails.

“I don’t know what we did wrong. I thought he knew that he was loved here. I guess we just weren’t doing enough,” Victor sounded so distressed that Billy actually felt bad.

“I understand that some foster kids run away from their homes but… it’s  _ Freddy _ ,” Rosa collapsed onto the couch with a cry. “What are we going to do? We’ll have to call the _police_. We have to find him in case he gets hurt, or _worse_.”

As Victor sighed and reached for the phone, Billy panicked. “Wait- no, don’t call the police,” he shouted and both his foster parents immediately turned to look at him. “It’s not you either, you haven’t done anything wrong. He’s happy here, and he’s ever going to run away. He just… he had a bad day at school today, is all, and he doesn’t want to talk to anyone until he feels better.”

Rosa had slowly risen from the couch and was now looking at Billy with something akin to shock. “But how do you know that? Do you know something that we don’t?”

Shaking his head, Billy resumed stuffing his back with snacks. “No, but I know Freddy. I’m going to go out to look for him now, and I bet you fifty bucks that he hasn’t even left the city. When I find him, I’ll bring him back in once piece and we’ll be home in time for dinner. I promise.”

“How can you be so sure?” Victor asked. “We’ve known Freddy for a very long time, even longer than you have, and we haven’t got the first idea where to look. He may not even be in the city if he took a cab or something. How are you so sure that you could find him by tonight?”

Shrugging, Billy shouldered his backpack, “I just do. Trust me. I’ll bring him home.”

Billy didn’t have to search the city to look for Freddy. He knew exactly where he would be the moment he left the house, and he made a bee-line for the old abandoned factory, with the permanent yet faded markings from Billy’s first few training sessions and he arrived a few minutes before the sun began to dip below the horizon and paint the sky in pinks and purples and yellows.

The factory had been abandoned and forgotten for a very long time, close to being condemned, so he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him as he climbed the stairs. Ordinarily, Billy would just fly up there, but he could see the faint outline of a figure sitting at the very top of the building and he didn’t want to alert Freddy that he had company.

So Billy slowly climbed the stairs to the roof that was oh so steadily caving in, holding tightly to the straps of his heavily loaded backpack until he came close enough to the roof to hear whistling. 

As quietly as he could, Billy peaked his head up over the lip of the building and was granted a perfect view of the other side of the roof and Freddy sitting there with his legs dangling over the edge of the building. But it wasn’t normal, everyday Freddy with the blue woollen beanie and crutches. This was super-powered Freddy, Shazam-ified, in his bright blue suit and white cape blowing in the light rind, his hair all ruffled like it did when he went flying. There was a bright, easy-going grin on his upturned face as he basked in the last of the sunlight. His eyes were closed. 

Holding back a small smile, Billy climbed the final few steps and ascended to the roof, and Freddy didn’t notice the grinding of gravel and concrete under his feet until Billy spoke. “It’s been a long night,” Billy called and Freddy spun around so fast that for a moment he was just a blur of blue and white. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Freddy had the grace to blush, “You’ve been looking for little old me?” he said innocently, “What for?”

“Not so little at the moment,” Billy pointed out as he crossed the rest of the roof and joined Freddy on the edge of the building. “The school rang, said that you skipped class. Victor and Rosa have been worried sick. They were going to call the police. They thought you ran away.”

Frowning, Freddy looking out over the horizon and the tiny lights in the buildings as the residents got ready to end the night. “Ran away? I would never run away. They know that.”

Shrugging, Billy swung his backpack off his shoulders and repositioned it in his lap. “Maybe, but they made me promise that I would bring you home tonight.”

“I was always going to come back,” Freddy said quietly. “I just needed some time to myself, you know? Some time to think.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Billy said easily. “But I heard that you had a bad day today. Do you want to talk about it?”

Freddy looked down at the ground below them. “Not really,”

That set Billy on edge- Freddy always wanted to talk, even about meaningless things. “Not even to your faithful sidekick?”

Snorting, Freddy made a face and looked at Billy with an incredulous expression. “Sidekick? You’re not my sidekick. If anything, I’m  _ your  _ sidekick.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. We’re still cool,” Billy elbowed Freddy lightly in the side, and where Freddy would have usually doubled over with a grunt of pain, this time he didn’t even flinch. “Could you tell me what happened? For me? Please?”

There was a quiet look of regret on Freddy’s face before he said, “Some new kids at school called me a cripple and broke my crutch when I told them to get lost. I had to get one from the school nurse so I could get to the rest of my classes.”

He spoke about it with detachment, as if it meant next to nothing, but Billy knew better than that, and he felt himself getting angry at his friend's expense. “Are you joking? Freddy, those things cost more than the house! Is the school at least letting you keep the spare crutch until we get you a new one?”

“Nope,” Freddy shrugged at Billy’s horrified expression. “I have to give it back. I was actually supposed to give it back at the end of the day, but I left early so I could get home. But I changed my mind. So I’m up here instead.”

“Who was it?” Billy demanded, turning partially to face Freddy, gripping the side of the roof like his life depended on it. “You said they were new kids. What are their names? What year level are they in?”

“Nobody, Billy,” Freddy shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters. They bullied you and broke something you need, something important to your every-day-life. You can’t say it just doesn’t matter.” Billy was outraged. “They broke your crutches, Freddy! That’s not something that any of us can just let slide!”

“Yeah, well,” Freddy sounded so bitter that Billy was actually taken aback. “It wouldn’t be such a big deal if I wasn’t a cripple.”

Suddenly, everything clicked into place and Billy looked Freddy over with a sympathetic expression. “Is that why you’re up here? Like this? As super-Freddy and not regular Freddy? Because you think you’re a cripple?”

“I _am_ a cripple,” Freddy argued.

“Don’t listen to those kids. They’re stupid, and they don’t know you,” Billy replied. “You can’t let them get to you, Freddy.”

“But they’re right, Billy,” Freddy sounded so defeated that Billy felt something crack within his chest, a pain that spiralled between his eyes. He felt a familiar tingle in his fingers, but he kept his mouth shut. “I can't go anywhere without needing crutches. Nobody _sees me_ , nobody sees past my disability, past the stupid crutches. I like being Super-Powered Freddy. People see me for who I am then.”

Billy shook his head. “Freddy,  _ we  _ see past your crutches. Isn’t that enough?”

“You didn’t see past them for a very long time. You were just like everybody else,” Freddy said, and Billy felt something like shame settle heavily like a weighted blanket over his shoulders. He hated that Freddy was right. “I get picked on at school more than the average foster kid, and I should know. I like nobody knowing who I really am. I like this guy-” he gestured at himself. “-more than I like boring Freddy Freeman.”

Sighing, Billy began pulling out bags of lollies and chips and opened them at random. When he offered a crudely ripped bag of dinosaur-shaped lollies to Freddy, he eyed them wearily before he shyly stuck his hand in and removed a fistful of lollies, the heads and tails of some of the dinosaurs peeking out from between his knuckles. He knew that Freddy would eat the green and orange ones first before he moved onto the pink and purple ones, and by then they would be warm and sticky against his skin, and the remains would all get stuck in his teeth.

Part of Billy wanted to fling himself off the building and the other part wanted to wrap Freddy in a tight, comforting hug, but he settled for swivelling around and leaning his whole weight against Freddy, his knees up. For his part, Freddy didn’t even flinch. “Do you really think that?”

“Yeah,” Though Freddy’s mouth was full of decapitated dinosaurs, his word still rang true. “I do. Every day, I’m dodging bullies and trying not to be seen. But I hate it. I hate people only seeing an easy target and a disabled kid with crutches.”

“I thought you wanted to be seen?”

“As Freddy Freeman. Not as the cripple of Philadelphia.”

Billy didn’t know what to say, and he almost said as much, but he busied himself by picking out his favourite dinosaur from the mixture in the bag. “For what it’s worth, _I_ like Freddy Freeman.”

“You’re _supposed_ to like Freddy Freeman. That’s your job,” Freddy mumbled. “You're my brother. I would  _ hope  _ that you like me.”

“Sure, but like, you’re my brother and my best friend. I like you anyway and every way,” Billy said. “But you like this version of you more, huh?”

There was a long pause before Freddy sighed and said, in a voice so quiet that Billy would have missed it if he wasn’t leaning against him, “Yeah. I do. My specific superpower might be flight, but I think the best superpower is being able to walk.”

Billy mused that over. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Well, unfortunately, I can’t help you with that,” Billy said. “I can’t change the way you see yourself. But it doesn’t matter if you use crutches or can fly. You’re the same Freddy, and I care about you just the same. I see you. And I see my nerdy foster brother who knows more about the Justice League than even Batman does and who keeps up with all the hero-related news and knows everything about all of them. You’re my Freddy whether you can walk or not.”

Billy shook as Freddy chuckled. “Your Freddy, huh?”

“Shut up,” Billy blushed and whacked Feddy in the chest as they had a good laugh and played on the edge of the building for a moment before they settled back down and gazed out at the steadily setting sun. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Not really,” Freddy admitted. “But thanks for trying,”

“Are you ready to go home then?”

“Yeah. Victor and Rosa will be starting to panic by now.”

Freddy didn’t change back immediately, and instead grabbed Billy by the side, tucked safely under his arm, and flew them down to the ground before he retrieved his crutches from where he hid them behind a bin- one familiar and well worn, adjusted perfectly to his height, and the other was almost fresh out of the box, shiny and new. “I think I’ll walk,” he said when Billy hooked his fingers in the straps of his backpack. “It’ll take double the time if I don’t.”

“I mean, unless you fly us there, we’re walking either way,” Billy shrugged.

“Well, you can fly too. Why am I the one doing all the work?” Freddy argued.

“Don’t look at me. You’re  _ my  _ sidekick.”

“Oh, I see how it is,”

They were a block away from the house they shared with their family when Freddy finally, reluctantly changed back in a blast of lightning and the cracking sound of thunder, and Billy offered him his crutches with a knowing grimace. Freddy sighed and snatched them from his grasp, grumbling about the one he hadn’t had a chance to adjust yet, and made off towards the house, lit up like a lighthouse. Billy made sure to keep one hand on Freddy’s lower back, for support and for comfort, and he felt how tense Freddy was beneath his hand. He didn’t mention it.

“Hey!” Billy shouted into the foyer when he opened the front door and Freddy joined him inside. “Look who I found! And before dinner too, I bet.”

When he turned the corner into the lounge room, he was not at all surprised to see everyone gathered around, Rosa and Victor pacing back and forth. Eugene had Billy’s algebra homework in his lap. But everyone turned immediately to look at them, and it was like a switch was flicked, and relief settled over the room like a fog. “Freddy!” Rosa said as she broke away from the path she was pacing in the carpet and rushed over to crush Freddy in an almost bone-splintering hug. “Where have you been? We were worried sick!”

Victor came over and placed a heavy hand on Billy’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Sorry Rosa,” Freddy said, and he couldn’t hide the blush that spread across his face. “I had a pretty bad day today. I didn’t want to be around anyone.”

“So we heard,” Victor said. “What happened?”

Billy spoke before Freddy had the chance to downplay it. “Some new kids at school broke his crutch,” Billy said, and there was an instant murmur of distress. “The school isn’t even letting him keep the spare one, so he’s only got one until we can afford some more. They called him a  _ cripple _ ,” the word tasted sour in his mouth.

Rosa pulled away from Freddy just long enough to look at his face, but her hands remained tightly on his arms, afraid he would disappear again. “Oh, dear. We’ll have to sort that out, won't we,” Billy glanced behind him, and he saw that the rest of his siblings had the same, determined expression that he wore on his own face, and he knew exactly what was going to happen tomorrow at school. “But tonight Freddy I… I’m just so glad that you decided to come home.”

“I didn’t run away, you know,” Freddy said. “I love it here, I love  _ you  _ guys. I wouldn’t ever run away. I’m sorry that I made you worry.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, Freddy,” Victor scoffed and moved away from Billy so he could place a kiss to Freddy’s head, and Freddy made a fake disgusted face in response. “It’s our job to worry about you. We’re a family. That’s what families do. I’m just glad that you just decided to come home. And _you_ ,” he said, ruffling Billy’s hair. “Followed home with your promise. I’m proud of you.”

“Back before dinner,” Billy said with a smile.

Rosa frowned. “Speaking of dinner…” she exchanged a glance with Victor, and neither of them could hold back their laughter. “We’ll have to order takeout. We were just so worried about Freddy that we didn’t prepare anything for dinner. We just forgot.”

“We had a lot on our minds, alright?” Victor defended when they all started to laugh.

“Don’t worry,” Freddy said as he made his way back into the living room while everyone else took turns giving him lots of love, hugs and all. “I can wait. I’m not going anywhere.”

The next day at school, the new bully’s in town who had been acting like they owned the place for way too long were very surprised to find five very colourful, very large and very angry superheroes standing on the roof of their car, ready to escort a very excited Freddy home, and it was safe to say that not only did the school sick-bay give Freddy the spare crutch to call his own until they could afford a new one, those bullies never found the courage to lay a hand on Freddy again, much less go near him or even look in his direction. 

And that was just the way they liked it.


End file.
